Education board renews charters for 3 schools LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) - The State Board of Education has renewed the charters for three independently run schools and approved a new charter school in the Bauxite district. The board voted Monday to renew the charters for the KIPP Delta Charter Schools in Phillips and Mississippi counties and the eStem charter school in Little Rock. The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette reports (http://is.gd/L6bSEL ) that both renewals are for 10 years. The board als...

Education a team effortLast week, Sheila Jacobs stepped into the role as Russellville High School’s interim principal following Sammy Ussery’s abrupt resignation, a position she finds both humbling, exciting, and challenging. “I thought that this was an absolutely incredible opportunity,” she said. “The primary thing I was thinking was the responsibility and impact that we together as Russellville High School could have on students.” It’s also a position that she fi...

A delicious way to learnCrawford Elementary students add pizza sauce to their personal pizzas they made Thursday morning in the school cafeteria. A group of students at the school became “roving chefs” under the direction of Chef Justin Mills of Southwest Foodservice who taught the students how to make their own personal pizza while showing the children the different types of fruits and vegetables. Students were also taken on a tour of the kitchen to see where their ...

Dover School Board looks to hire officerThe Dover School Board considered the possibility of hiring a resource officer at its monthly meeting earlier this week, a process that could be complicated by funding issues. Currently, the district does not have a paid resource officer. In the past, the school has worked in conjunction with the Pope County Sherriff’s Office and Dover Marshal, who would appoint an officer to come visit the schools at different points in the day. But with the ...

Rodney Parks to speak at Arkansas Tech todayArkansas Tech University alumnus Rodney Parks will return to campus to address students and faculty as part of the Arkansas Tech College of Business Distinguished Speaker Series today. Parks will speak in John E. Tucker Coliseum beginning at 5:30 p.m. The event is free and open to the public. A 1991 graduate of Arkansas Tech, Parks worked in the banking industry for 20 years before accepting his current position as director of development for ...

Arkansas Tech celebrates 1,000 online studentsArkansas Tech University President Dr. Robert C. Brown made a promise in 2011 that when the institution’s Accelerated Degree Program enrolled its 1,000th student, he would host a reception in honor of the faculty and staff who made it possible. It took just 16 months for Arkansas Tech to reach that milestone. The university enrolled its 1,000th student in the Accelerated Degree Program in January, and the reception celebrating that accomplishm...

Ussery: Health issues led to resignationRumors circulated throughout Russellville following Sammy Ussery’s abrupt resignation from his position as principal of Russellville High School, but Ussery quelled those rumors in an interview with The Courier on Wednesday. Ussery said he submitted his resignation Monday following the discovery Friday of certain gastrointestinal health issues that plagued him throughout a majority of this semester. While Ussery said that the illness isn’t lif...

Oakland Heights Elementary celebrates African American historyOakland Heights Elementary School hosted its Celebration of African American History: Trail Blazers in Arkansas program on Wednesday at the cafeteria. The program was made up of students from all age groups, and included music, education and a visit from the Arkansas National Guard. A significant portion of the program covered the “Little Rock Nine.” Oakland Height students, primarily from the third and fourth grades took on the roles of those...

Schools shift from textbooks to tablets WASHINGTON (AP) — Well before the cleanup from Superstorm Sandy was in full swing, students could read about the weather system that slammed the East Coast in their textbooks. Welcome to the new digital bookcase, where traditional ink-and-paper textbooks have given way to iPads and book bags are getting lighter. Publishers update students’ books almost instantly with the latest events or research. Schools are increasingly looking to the hand-h...

Comet making closest approach ever of EarthCAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — A recently discovered comet is closer than it's ever been to Earth, and stargazers in the Northern Hemisphere finally get to see it. Called Pan-STARRS, the comet is passing within 100 million miles of Earth on Tuesday, its closest approach. This ice ball will get even nearer the sun this weekend — just 28 million miles from the sun. That's within the orbit of Mercury. The comet has been visible for weeks from the So...

RJHS competes against high schools in Spanish competitionRussellville Junior High School competed in their district Spanish competition Saturday. 31 schools competed in the event from places such as West Memphis, Rogers, Little Rock, North Little Rock, Conway, ASMSA, Lisa Academy, Russellville High School and many others. RJHS was the only junior high to compete in the event, but still had to compete against the high schools. There were 15 Distinguished Ribbons and 10 Advanced Ribbons. They are as f...

Professor heads up Syrian opposition's US offices LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) - As a professor at the University of Arkansas, Syrian-born Najib Ghadbian is no stranger to educating Americans about the Middle East. Now, he's taking his knowledge beyond the classroom, stepping into a new role as the Syrian opposition coalition's representative in the United States. In teaching political science, Ghadbian has sometimes asked students to label countries on a blank map of the region. "And out of 25 cou...

Schools and future teachers turn out for Tech’s career fairThe weather was more agreeable for a second chance to attend the annual education job fair on Thursday. The finest of Arkansas Tech’s education program were on hand to network with teacher recruiters. Dana Florian, director of Tech’s Norman Career Services, was in charge of heading up the event. This was her second education fair since taking over as director. Many of the institutions that planned to be at the fair were unable to accommodate t...

RHS principal to resign, placed on leave until June 30UPDATE — Sammy Ussery tells The Courier health issues led to his resignation , citing a gastrointestinal condition "enhanced" by stress. —— Russellville High School principal Sammy Ussery will resign just more than a year after his hiring , superintendent Randall Williams said in a statement Monday night. Ussery will resign June 30 and was placed on extended sick leave until his resignation date, according to Williams' statement. Ussery was hi...

Making a difference — The Dardanelle Five: Teachers who have a positive impactEditor’s note: This is part of an ongoing series of stories that focuses ono people who are making a difference in education in the Arkansas River Valley. Earlier this year, the Dardanelle School District was selected as one of the 539 schools in the United States and Canada to be placed in the AP District Honor Roll. It’s a distinction the district earned due to the efforts of all its employees, but the learning process always begins with the...

Budget cuts to hit military school districts first FORT HOOD, Texas (AP) — Public schools everywhere will be affected by the government’s automatic budget cuts, but few may feel the funding pinch faster than those on and around military bases. School districts with military ties from coast-to-coast are bracing for increased class sizes and delayed building repairs. Others already have axed sports teams and even eliminated teaching positions, but still may have to tap savings just to make it th...

Police in 1 Minnesota town set up shop in schools JORDAN, Minn. (AP) — One small-town Minnesota school district is taking a unique approach to keeping students safe: The police are moving in. In Jordan, south of Minneapolis, officials looking at school security after the massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut decided the police would set up satellite offices in public schools. Officers will conduct some of their daily work from the schools, including taking calls and filling ...

Tech faculty members promoted, granted tenureTwenty-one members of the Arkansas Tech University faculty were promoted and eight Tech faculty members were granted tenure by the Arkansas Tech Board of Trustees during its meeting at the Ross Pendergraft Library and Technology Center on Thursday. Policies and procedures regarding faculty evaluation, promotion and tenure were developed by an independent faculty committee in spring 1995 and approved by the Arkansas Tech Board of Trustees on Ju...

Tech reaches out to new audience with programThere’s a new option on the horizon for college graduates from a wide variety of backgrounds who want to sharpen their business acumen while earning a master’s degree. Arkansas Tech University will offer course work toward a Master of Science in Business Administration degree for the first time during the fall 2013 semester. The 30-hour program, which is the first master’s degree offering from the Arkansas Tech College of Business, is availabl...

Michelle Obama highlights obesity progress in MississippiCLINTON, Miss. (AP) — Michelle Obama on Wednesday congratulated this Southern state for a more than 13 percent drop in its child obesity rates, saying its example should inspire the rest of the country. It’s the reason she made Mississippi the first stop on a two-day tour to promote her signature effort, the anti-childhood obesity campaign she launched three years ago called “Let’s Move.” In remarks at an elementary school near Jackson, the fi...